Warning Over Doctor-Run Groups

A federal agency issued a special fraud alert about physician-owned distributorships—commercial entities run by doctors that have proliferated in the fields of orthopedic and spine surgery—calling them "inherently suspect" and warning they "pose dangers to patient safety."

The alert, from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, comes as the Justice Department is pushing ahead with an investigation of physician-owned distributorships, or PODs, according to people familiar...